Red Rum and Ginger McCain, a horse racing legend and this is their story.

A horse and his trainer, with fiery names and the colouring and personalities to match, this duo forged a blazing trail through the world of horse racing that is unmatched to this day.

Red Rum was born on the 3rd May 1965. His dam was Mared, who was known to be slightly moggy and his Sire was Quorum.  Red Rum, a bay gelding was of average size and he was bred to be a one-mile sprinter.

Ginger McCain was born on the 21^st September 1930. Ginger was a second-hand car dealer and taxi driver that had a small stable outfit at the back of his second-hand car lot in Southport. He famously trained his horses on the extensive sands of Southport beach.

The Grand National at Aintree, Liverpool, England is a world-famous steeplechase race and has been referred to as “the ultimate test of a horse’s courage”.

Red Rum started his career running in cheap races as a sprinter and was passed from training yard to training yard until he was eventually bought by Ginger McCain for owner Noel La Mare for 6000 Guineas at the Doncaster August sales in 1972.

On offloading Red Rum, Ginger noticed when he trotted the horse that he seemed lame. Red Rum had developed a debilitating bone disease called pedal osteitis.  Luck and fate stepped in here as Red Rum had arrived at perhaps the only training stable in the country where training took place on a beach. Ginger as a young lad had noticed the beneficial effects that the water had on the shrimper’s horses.

Ginger put Red Rum into the icy salt waters of the Irish Sea, these waters worked their therapeutic magic and miraculously Red Rum came trotting out healed and sound. Red Rum went on to win his first five races for Ginger and become a horse racing legend.

Red Rum ran into the history books and became a champion and celebrity when he achieved the un-matched and historic treble win, winning the Grand National in 1973, 1974 and 1977 and in the two years in-between namely 1975 and 1976 he came second  both times. Red Rum was to run again in the 1978 Grand National but was withdrawn a day before this epic event as he had developed a hairline fracture in his leg. Red Rum was retired from racing and the bay gelding who was placed in 52 of his 100 races embarked on his second career as a travelling celebrity.

Red Rum was voted sporting personality of the year in 1977, he appeared on TV, he switched on the Blackpool lights, opened pubs and supermarkets and lead the Grand National parade for many more years.  Red Rum became a limited company and his likeness graced playing cards, mugs, posters, models, paintings and puzzles. Several books have been written about Red Rum by his trainer, sculptor, jockeys and also author Ivor Herbert. In 1975, a song entitled “Red Rum” was issued as a tribute to him by a group named Chaser. A children’s story about Red Rum’s life was written by Christine Pemberton. In 2010, the name of the Aintree racecourse bar, originally called “The Sefton” was changed to “The Red Rum”.

Red Rum died at the age of 30 on the 18th October 1995. His death made the front pages of the national newspapers. Red Rum is buried at the winning post of Aintree racecourse with his head facing the winning post.  The epitaph on his grave reads … “Respect this place, this hallowed ground, a legend here, his rest has found, his feet would fly our spirits soar he earned our love for evermore”

Red Rum the horse racing legend has statues both at Aintree Racecourse and in Southport

Ginger famously said “Everyone called me a one-horse trainer but it never bothered me. I just used to laugh and say ‘yeah, but what a bloody good job I made of the one I had’.”

Ginger has also said of Red Rum “He had a charisma all of his own. He loved people and people Memorial to Red Rum the horse racing legendloved him. The old lad was magic”.

When the colourful and out-spoken racehorse trainer, Ginger McCain won the Grand National one more time with Amberleigh House in 2004 at the age of 73, after the race he quietly made his way over to the grave of his beloved Red Rum, triple National winner, buried alongside the winning post.
He later joked that Rummy, who had died nine years earlier, had spoken to him about his latest win.
He quipped “Red Rum said to me ‘let him win it twice more and he might be nearly as good as me’ “.

McCain has said “I’m no legend, I was associated with a horse who was a legend”

On the 19th September 2011, the trainer most associated with Aintree Racecourse, Ginger McCain, died peacefully at his home, two days short of his 81st birthday.

A bronze bust of Ginger McCain has since been made and erected at the Aintree Racecourse.

Red Rum and Ginger, masters of the Grand National and legends in the world of horse racing are finally re-united, this feisty pair are commemorated on the grounds they both loved and lived for most. They will live on in the record books of history forever.

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